Monday, June 16, 2014

Why I Believe In Being A Principal Like A Pirate

After reading Teach
Like A Pirate and seeing Dave
Burgess in March, I have taken a whole different approach to being a
principal. I like to think that I always
did what was best for students, but maybe I was missing something. I now think more about the “experience”
instead of the lesson. I am more open to
doing the outrageous in front of the students, and for the students’ sake than
I previously was. I want them to
remember their experiences at our school and remember me as someone who
inspired and engaged them.

For many years I worked with students with severe emotional
and behavioral disorders. Although I
held them to high standards, I always thought it was important that they see me
as someone who was going to make the rules and keep them in line. I also believe that it was important that
these students, who could be very dangerous and violent, believed that I was “a
little crazier” than they were. They
often commented, “ That Mr. Billy is crazy, you never know what he is going to
do.” This seemed to work for me and help
me to communicate with the students. Eventually,
most of these students began to respect and like me (notice I say most). They trusted me and believed I was there to
help them.

Dave Burgess helped me to step back into the mode of “Making
it an experience”. Being an elementary
principal is not so different than working with students who have emotional and
behavioral issues. I need to build a
rapport with them and provide them with enthusiastic leadership. I need
to catch their attention and make them believe that they going to be fully
engaged and enthralled with everything that goes on during the day. Whether
I am riding the bicycle down the hall to deliver mail to the students, singing
as the students get off of the bus in the morning, doing cartwheels across the
kindergarten classroom, or using the megaphone into the loudspeaker to make
announcements, I want the students to say, “That Mr. Billy is crazy, you never
know what he is going to do.” And . . . “We
love him.”

Thank you Dave Burgess for helping me see the way. It was always in my head, but now I let it
out and it helps me connect with the kids.
I will continue to try to create the “experience” that elementary school
should be.